


My Heart is a Grenade

by angrymiqote



Series: Save Rock and Roll [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Eli's just the WoL's friend, Getting Together, M/M, something gentle u wu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 14:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angrymiqote/pseuds/angrymiqote
Summary: It usually sucks getting left behind, but sometimes it's the best place you can be





	My Heart is a Grenade

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly didn't know what to name this so I just used a Fall Out Boy line :/

“Azure and I can take care of this so you just make yourself comfortable,” Keithran purrs, poking Elijah in the chest. The finger is aggressively swatted away and Keithran pouts, holding it like a scolded child.

Elijah doesn’t believe that farce for a second.

“I know what you’re insinuating and if you don’t fucking cut it out, I’ll clock your ears right off your big head,” Elijah growls. Keithran only laughs, hand resting on the gun at his hip.

“We’ll only be gone for a couple hours tops. Try not to have the camp at your throat by then,” Kei teases as he back steps towards the camp gate where Azure, Cid, and Alphinaud are waiting to depart. As much as Elijah wants to deny it, that request is probably warranted. Eli doesn’t have a good track record with keeping on people’s good side.

“Piss off,” and with that, Elijah trudges back into Camp Dragonhead, a sour mood settling in his gut. Ever since Azure shifted into the picture, Elijah’s gotten the short end of the stick. Sure this is Azure’s homeland, he was raised in Ishgard and knows the Central Highlands like the back of his hand...well, now that Elijah thinks about it that logical asshole side of him can kinda understand why Azure was chosen over him. Four is a party, fives a crowd.

Elijah spends some time, totally not sulking, on the wall next to the Aetheryte with his legs dangling over. The night’s chill is setting in, and there’s a layer of snow building on his shoulders that he can’t be bothered to wipe off.

The knights are doing their rounds and Eli watches, leaning his arms on his thighs with a sigh of defeat. This is _so_ boring. Why didn’t Keithran take Elijah with them? Azure and Kei are off fighting their way through the Vigil and Eli’s stuck here watching some stupid knight look for the sword attached to his own damn hip. How the hell this place is still standing against the Dravanian horde is a twelves damned mystery.

“Ah, there you are my friend! Whatever are you doing out here?”

Thought process interrupted, Elijah’s gaze slides down to Haurchefant. He’s looking up at Eli with a smile, hands on his hips in that weird, ever chipper manner. Seriously, how is he this happy?

“Bored,” Elijah shifts to rest his chin in his hand. “The hell are you doin’ out here? Don’t you have work to do or something?”

“Nonsense!” So that means yes, “I heard you stayed behind so I felt compelled to ask for your time if you’ll permit me to have it.” Haurchefant smiles that dumb, sweet smile of his and Eli tries to ignore the way it makes his heart erratically beat. Maybe he’s finally having a heart attack. Kei always jokes that because Elijah’s so angry all the time he’ll stroke out before he turns thirty summers.

Weighing his options, Elijah decides spending time with Haurchefant is infinitely better than watching these idiotic knights trip around their own camp. Eli slides off the wall, sticking the landing, and dusting the snow off his shoulder blades. “Got some work for me to do?”

“No no nothing like that. Simply put, I would love to spend some time together. I’d like to think that a far better use of your time than catching hypothermia. There is hot coffee and a warm hearth attached to that offer.” Oh god, Eli can feel his cheeks burning and looks away at nothing just in case Haurchefant could somehow tell. The guy lives out here it’s a very valid fear thank you.

_‘Fuck you Keithran you did this on purpose. Hope those dragons burn you and your shitty Ishgardian fling into ash.’_

“Yeah yeah, m’fucking cold let’s go inside,” Elijah scoots around Haurchefant and makes a beeline for the camp office, rubbing furiously at his cheeks as he goes.

 

* * *

 

“That’s a lot of paperwork you’re not doing,” Elijah quips once they settle in, Haurchefant with his precious hot chocolate and Eli perching on the man’s desk as he takes his first sip of coffee. It’s kinda like an unspoken rule that when Elijah and Haurchefant spend time together, there is always a spot cleared of paperwork to sit. Also coffee. Elijah can’t stomach sweets. While Keithran can shovel an entire pastry cart down his gullet, Eli feels queasy if he has a single tart.

“Bah, it’s nothing that can’t wait till the morning. You’ll only be here for a few hours. It’d be a waste of precious time to catch up,” Haurchefant assures, leaning back against his chair and giving Elijah his rapt attention. “Now, tell me what has happened since we last spoke.”

Ironically enough, this is not Keithran and Elijah’s first romp around Camp Dragonhead or Coerthas for that matter. They actually passed through here quite frequently when they were early adventurers, Keithran helping out over in Whitebrim with weaving blankets and shirts for the knights and Elijah curbing the highland’s monster populations. Running into Haurchefant became a given, and at some point Elijah began to linger at Camp Dragonhead whether there was work to be done or not. Eli knows better than to think too hard about that.

They sit there as Eli recounts all the dumb nonsense Kei and him got into; killing Ifrit, that whole circus with the Company of Heroes. It’s a companionable atmosphere, one that brings warmth to Eli’s chest. Heartburn probably.

“All these dangerous, fantastical things...it’s a miracle you are still walking to tell these tales. I thank the Fury that you are...I would be devastated should anything happen to you both,” Haurchefant says with such sincerity Elijah feels his face burn again. How the hell is Eli supposed to respond to that? He knows it was directed at both him and Kei but twelves be damned, Haurchefant is staring right into his soul it feels so freaking personal.

“Can’t get rid of us that easy. We’re like cockroaches,” Eli rushes and drains the rest of his coffee to get a moment to mentally breathe. Haurchefant snorts and Eli finds himself smiling in the corner of his mouth. As Elijah pulls the empty mug away from his mouth, his eyes catch the chronometer over the hearth. “They’ve been gone three hours. The fuck are they doing up there? Baking a cake?”

“Perhaps that is a good sign. They might have found the Enterprise and are making spot repairs for Her?” Haurchefant wagers, but Elijah isn’t satisfied with hoping something went well. Knowing Keithran, shit hit the fan in the most spectacular way possible. Like becoming a dragon’s lunch or an ascian showing up. That anxious thought prompts Elijah to ring Kei’s linkshell but no dice; the call doesn’t go through. Chances are the storm that’s brewing outside is causing some interference, or at least, that’s what Eli hopes is true. Oh well, only one way to get answers.

“I should probably track his ass down,” Eli slips off the desk. “Shithead probably has his arm stuck in a door.”

“Surely the four of them have the situation handled. I highly doubt anything good will come of you galavanting into the Highlands alone, at night, and with a storm coming in no less.” Haurchefant leans forward doing that stupid ‘I’m not mad I’m just disappointed’ hand fold on the desk, usually something he reserves for reprimanding knights.

What is Eli to him? A god damn kitten? He can take care of himself. He outpaced Keithran all over the Sagoli during their 'trial' for that Nunh and even dragged Kei's unconscious ass back when he fainted from dehydration. A walk through the snow is nothing compared to that. Besides, Elijah has been trucking through Coerthas with Kei for a half a year now. He’s not an idiot, he knows his owns limits and to be honest, Haurchefant should know that Eli can handle himself.

“So leaving them up there is the better option? If the Enterprise can’t be repaired then what? You’re really going to make them wait up there all night? You said it yourself a storm is coming in. If they get stuck up there with no dry wood they’re fucked,” Eli shoulders on his bow and quiver, turning to give Haurchefant a pointed glare.

“And if they’re fine, and you freeze to death trying to get there then what would you have me tell Master Keithran, hmm?” Haurchefant’s counter argument stops Elijah in his tracks, hand flat against the door. Where did all of this sass come from?

“You’re not my babysitter,” Eli bares his fangs and annoyingly enough Haurchefant seems unaffected, too used to Elijah’s trigger-quick temper.

“You’re right, but I like to consider myself a good friend. I would beside myself thinking about all the terrible things that could happen to you while you’re out there alone so I am imploring you to trust me when I say they will be okay. Keithran and Ser Rinx are more than capable between the two of them and with Master Garland and Master Alphinaud at their side doubly so,” Haurchefant’s expression softens, “Please don’t go Elijah. Wait out the storm here and we’ll go first thing in the morning together.”

Eli glares down at the stone floor, ears flat on his head and a scowl on his face. He can do this, he knows he can, and he _will_ damn it. This is the third time now he’s been left behind in favor of Azure. Keithran even left him here, left him to be babysat.

I’m not a burden and I’ll goddamn prove it.

Eli walks out and slams the door shut behind him without another word, white, hot anger settling in his stomach. He makes it exactly two steps out of Camp Dragonhead when his foot slips on an icy patch and sends him ass over tea kettle down the hill.


End file.
